What I would Do

I like the separate entrance idea. From my scribbles I can get three bedrooms but it would rely on being able to knock a window into the rear sitting room's external wall.. does that count as knocking down walls?!

Not sure what we will be able to do but pretty sure we can knock a window into the external wall. The master bedroom in the plan that Jonathan kindly drew is currently rented out as a bedsit so can’t use that space!
I think we may need to extend out with flat roof extension from conservatory/living room

My scribble. Good luck!

I love this… thank you for your time Rosy 🤩

I agree that getting that front room back would make most sense. It would make for an amazing flat!

If you really can't, I would seek advice on whether you could put a staircase onto the side of the building for access to the upper floor, close off the main hall for your exclusive use and sort out access to the bedsit only from the side door. This is all pretty unconventional though and I wonder about future-proofing and resale value.

Rosy makes a good point- an external staircase reclaim more square footage for you but you do still need to consider the resale. If you remove the staircase from the ground floor it’s harder for some later reinstate this into one big house, and if you ever wanted to sell an upper flat the external staircase reduces its saleability.

Gosh.. you two have some great ideas. The internal staircase is very pretty and would be a shame to block up for the tenants!

Think we have set our heart on a modern side extension that is triple insulated as our current house is so cold!!

Do you mean down the side adjacent the current kitchen? In which case, how about you make the side entrance yours, partition across the hall horizontally on the far side of the stair (lightly, so its easily removable) and claim the rear half of the ground floor for yourselves. Leave the front half inc stair to the tenants. The bedsit could gain the other front room, turning it into a one-bed flat. That seems a cleaner division of the space to me.

I think it’s a pity to have a large property/flat where you have no reception hall, you extend and cover the best window in a principal room, and you have to change the proportions of a grand room in order to add a hallway to other spaces. So I think the side extension needs rethinking

Could

this work for you?

Thank you for your great sketch. Looks really interesting & like the idea of the long through living/dining etc.
Jonathan has a real point and perhaps we need to look at what we have and rethink the extension (oh but I really like a trendy box on the side with exposed brick wall☺️🥹)

Extension alternative